Report released by the organization cites “systemic discrimination” in the region and states that Tel Aviv restricts Palestinian rights
The Israeli government promotes a systematic suffocation of the rights of Palestinians in the West Bank, says a report released this Wednesday (7 January 2026) by (Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights).
The document presents an analysis of the living conditions of residents of the region, focusing on the period from October 7, 2023 to September 30, 2025. Read the (PDF – 1.347 KB).
“There is a systematic suffocation of the rights of Palestinians in the West Bank. Whether accessing water, accessing school, going to the hospital, visiting family or friends, or picking olives – every aspect of Palestinian life in the West Bank is controlled and restricted by Israel’s discriminatory laws, policies and practices.”declared UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Commenting on the report in a statement, Türk stated that Israeli policy in the West Bank “It is a particularly serious form of racial discrimination and segregation, which resembles the kind of apartheid system we have seen before”.
According to the report, Israeli authorities deal with Palestinians and “colonists” Israelis in the region under 2 distinct sets of laws. This policy, according to the UN, results in “unequal treatment across a range of critical issues, including movement of and access to resources such as land and water.”
The United Nations document frames the situation in the territory as a violation of Article 3 of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, which prohibits racial segregation and apartheid. “It is concluded that there are plausible reasons to believe that separation, segregation and subordination are intended to be permanent, aiming to maintain oppression”the report states.
More than 500,000 Israelis live in settlements in the West Bank, territory occupied since 1967.
OCTOBER 7 SITUATION WORSE, SAYS UN
The text states that the treatment given by the Israeli authorities to the Palestinians deteriorated after those of October 7, 2023, when the extremist group Hamas killed more than 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages in Israel.
“Since October 7, 2023, the Government of Israel has further expanded the use of unlawful force, arbitrary detention and torture, repression of civil society and undue restrictions on press freedom, severe restrictions on movement, settlement expansion and related violations in the occupied West Bank, which has marked an unprecedented deterioration of the human rights situation in the region.”states the document, which describes an escalation of violence by “colonists” against the Palestinians with the support and participation of the Israeli Army.
Since the start of the conflict, more than 1,000 Palestinians have died in the West Bank in operations by Israeli troops and in episodes of violence organized by “colonists”according to a survey by the agency AFP based on data from the Palestinian Ministry of Health. According to data from the Israeli government, at least 44 Israelis died in Palestinian attacks or military actions during the period.
According to the OHCHR, Palestinians in the West Bank are also deprived of natural resources. The report states that Israel illegally confiscates and destroys the region’s water infrastructure and diverts water to its settlements, which forces the Palestinian Authority to purchase large quantities of water from an Israeli state company.
The text also cites Israeli government projects for new settlements in the region: “Israeli authorities and settlers have appropriated tens of thousands of hectares of Palestinian land, most of which is used to build new Israeli settlements or outposts, illegal under international law. A recent example is the approval by the Israeli security cabinet of the construction of 19 new settlements, which, according to Israeli officials, aims to prevent the creation of a Palestinian state.”
In a statement, Volker Türk calls on Israeli authorities to revoke all laws, policies and practices that perpetuate what he classifies as systemic discrimination against Palestinians. It also demands that Tel Aviv end what it called “illegal presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory” and remove all “colonists” of the region.
